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| Images courtesy of Eureka Entertainment |
Hong Kong based director-producer Johnnie To goes back as
far as 1980 with his debut feature The Enigmatic Case before working his
way up into the international mainstream circuit as an action-crime filmmaker with
Breaking News, Mad Detective and Drug War. Around 1996, the director co-founded his own
production company Milkyway Image with Peace Hotel writer-director Wai
Ka-fai and together they collaborated on eleven features, the tenth of which Running
on Karma comes to blu-ray disc for the first time via Eureka Entertainment
with a new 2K restoration. While they
were often known for romantic comedies and/or historical action epics, magical
realist Buddhist noir featuring Infernal Affairs star Andy Lau buried
underneath a body suit made up to look like a fitness junkie is not ordinarily
in their wheelhouse. As such, it
represents one of more difficult to pin down Hong Kong actioners, one that
doesn’t fit into any easily definable niche.
Biggie (Andy Lau), a former Buddhist monk who can see
premonitory visions of what will happen to others out of Karma, has left his spiritual
life behind in favor of hiding out as an oversized bodybuilder working at a male
strip club. But when he is arrested as
part of an undercover sting operation, he crosses paths with Lee Fung-yee
(Cecilia Cheung) who was working the case and finds himself drawn into assisting
with another police investigation involving a superhuman serial murderer. In addition to having a sixth sense that can
foresee future events, he also can see into past events and continues to see
recurring visions of Lee’s past life as a Japanese soldier massacring people in
the Second World War. From here, amid a
myriad of astonishingly choreographed and staged metaphysical fight sequences,
the film becomes an increasingly philosophical parable about the intersection
of past, present and future selves colliding together in a most fantastical
anomaly.
Slickly edited by Law Wing-cheung and shot with razor sharp
technical precision ranging from tight close ups to stunning wide-angled vistas
of characters gliding alongside buildings or ceilings by Cheng Siu-Keung and
aided by an otherworldly synthetic score by Cacine Wong, Running on Karma is
a wicked burst of metaphysical imagery with elements of the supernatural. Featuring a breathtaking performance by Andy
Lau buried in a body suit replete with scenes where he has to run outside naked
or fly through the air in the suit, it is at once a feat of astounding physical
acting as well as fierce emotional command with his eyes and voice. Cecilia Cheung, best known for her
collaborations with Stephen Chow, also comes into her own in this unusual
quasi-intersection of premonitory detective thriller and Buddhist neo-noir. The rest is a mixture of ensemble performers
in arrestingly choreographed physical combat exchanges that dazzle the eye as
they defy logic and reason.
Released in Hong Kong cinemas, it went on to become one of
the territory’s third highest grossing box office contenders and further received
a whopping thirteen nominations for the 23rd Hong Kong Film
Awards. Going on to win Best Film, Best
Screenplay and Best Actor for Andy Lau, the film also further won Lau top
honors from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award and Chinese Film Media
Awards of the Hong Kong/Taiwan region.
However, in the mainland China release of the film it was censored,
editing out much of the philosophical and spiritual content in favor of
reducing the whole thing down to just the fight scenes.
Thankfully in the world blu-ray premiere of Running
on Karma outside of its country of origin by Eureka Entertainment,
filmgoers can watch the uncut uncensored version of the film in this newly
restored digital master supplied by Fortune Star. A film that doesn’t quite fit into any one
sort of box despite having a character squeezing in and out of just that, Running
on Karma reminded me of E. Elias Merhige’s equally rule-bending Suspect
Zero by mixing together the crime thriller with the spiritual and
heightened sixth senses.
--Andrew Kotwicki
